IX. 1995
Peoria
"You know that fancy English degree and training doesn't mean shit here, right? You'll walk a beat like every other rookie. What the hell is "The Watcher's Academy" anyway? And how the fuck does a kid with a degree in "Unusual Criminology" from Oxford end up applying to walk a beat in Peoria?"
"Well Sir, I've always just wanted to help people. My mother's family has been…cops, of a sort, in England for generations. That is, they all went to that same Academy, so I went there first. I thought about staying but I realized they're pretty much all stuck up "arses", so I've come back here to the states. My dad's side of the family believes in working your way up from the bottom, so…I guess I'm trying to maybe honor both sides of the family? Be a cop, but work my way up rather than use family connections to walk in at the top."
1996
More Peoria
"DiNozzo, goddammit, this was a quiet station until you got here. Now it's like the goddam X Files. And it's not like I give you crazy ass cases. I gave you a run of the mill drunk and disorderly pick up at a bar every cop in this precinct has done pick ups at – no problem. You go and its goddam Halloween in February. I put you on a beat that hasn't had any thing more serious than the proverbial cat in a tree in ten years, and suddenly it's the fucking epicenter of a fucking drug war. You passed the detective's test with flying colors, no surprise there, but even if you hadn't I'd give you the gold shield just to get you off the goddam street and behind a desk before the town implodes. But do me a favor, would'ya? Look around a bit. You're originally from out east somewhere, right? I mean, you're a good kid and all, but maybe think about heading back toward your family. I'd hate to have to call them because the goddam boogie man came after you."